Transient birefringence of polymer melts in intermittent shear flow: Model analysis of the non-linear viscoelastic behaviour

A non-linear viscoelastic model has been used to interpret transient flow birefringence in changing shear flow for a polymer melt. It is shown how the new model is consistent with the basic hypothesis of the linear stress-optical law. Stress growth in shear flow and relaxation after different amounts of shearing are compared with the predictions of the non-linear model. A good agreement between experimental data and theoretical predictions is found.